Absolute Perfection of Crime is a novel with all the originality, toughness, and surprises of the best black-and-white film noir. Setting: A small French seaside town. Characters: A group of old crooks, on the verge of retirement. Plot: One final coup -- an imaginative and brazen hold-up of the local casino. Thus starts the perfect crime. Author Tanguy Viel is too young to have seen the Hollywood crime films of the 1950s when they first appeared, but American film noir, along with the modern, gritty visions of directors such as Martin Scorsese and Abel Ferrara, have shaped both his imagination and literary style. This brilliant and promising young French novelist is sure to delight an American audience.